News

County town is capital

A COUNCIL has moved to restore the pride of North Yorkshire’s county town after tourists and residents questioned the literacy of its civic leaders.

Former Mayor of Northallerton Coun John Coulson has led a two-year campaign to change the five entrance signs to Northallerton after being inundated with complaints that the town’s name featured a lower case ‘n’.

The “northallerton” signs were installed about four years ago and it is understood their designers used a lower case n to fit their artwork.

Councillor Coulson said he had been stunned by the level of irritatation caused by what appeared to be an error and had faced an uphill battle with the town council to “put the capital back in North Yorkshire’s capital”.

He said: “The lower case n was not a mistake, it was supposed to be a modern design. But I was amazed by the number of people who came up and said ‘Don’t you know what you’re doing?’”

Coun Steven Richardson added: “It has been a bit of an embarrassment, it has made us look a bit stupid.”

The council has changed the signs by sticking capital Ns over the lower case letters at a cost of £65.